Has any other book in history been as "prescriptive" as Mein Kampf?

Question

Hitler's signature work, "Mein Kampf", was written while he was in prison (!), following the failure of his so-called "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich in 1923.

In the book, he laid out in excruciating detail, a step-by-step blueprint of his future plans, which included:

1. Making himself the absolute dictator (not a President or even king with constitutionally limited power) of the country that imprisoned him.
2. Destroying or pushing to the brink of destruction the enemies of his adopted country, to the point of at least threatening to dominate the whole world.
3. Using his future (!) soldiers and "policemen" to arrest and kill as many members of his least favorite group as they could get their hands on.

Hitler's subsequent rise to power was improbable for the following reasons:

1. he was a prisoner (and a convicted felon) at the time he wrote the book;
2. although "German-speaking," he had been born an Austrian, not a German; and
3. he was poor, badly educated (a high school drop-out who was turned down for post-secondary school training (art schools in Vienna)), and a former "foot soldier" (not commissioned officer) from World War I.

In short, he was less than obvious "leadership" material.

Unfortunately, Hitler did "execute." But no one in power took "Mein Kampf" seriously, with the notable exception of Winston Churchill (who was, however,"out of power" early on).

Has any other leader (or CEO) in history (political, commercial, religious) similarly followed the script of a book they published before coming to power?

Answer 1

The example that comes to my mind is Frederick W. Smith, who, as a student at Yale in the 1960s, wrote a wild-sounding economics paper about a proposal for an air courier service. This was before he "came to power." It reportedly received a C from a professor who said, "The idea has to work in the real world."

Five years or so, later, while Smith was still in his twenties, he founded Federal Express, a company modeled along the lines of his paper. That's rather improbable, for a twenty-something to become the CEO of a company that would become a major corporation.

It was only slightly more probable than the story of the poor, badly educated former foot soldier, who, in eight years (1925-1933) rose from prisoner to the second most powerful man in the world (after FDR). Few, if anyone has produced such a deadly accurate "business plan" before becoming "CEO." Hopefully, no one will ever again "execute" (in more ways than one) like him.

Incidentally, Smith has said that he learned more from history, than business, books. http://www.usnews.com/news/campaign-2008/articles/2008/07/24/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-fred-smith

Answer 2

The US Constitution is not a book per-se, but it does quite clearly outline a specific plan for implementing a particular, theretofore untested form of government, which as yet had no power because it did not exist, but was subsequently implemented quite successfully by its authors themselves and their disciples, bringing them great power.

The argument has also been made that the French Revolution was essentially an attempt at a concrete implementation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract, (it is however, highly questionable as to how successful they were in that endeavor...) see: The Social Contract helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especially in France.

And:

Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, a History, Chapter 2.5.I regarding the revolutionary constitution of 1791: (one of numerous references there)

They have made the Constitution, these Twelve Hundred Jean-Jacques Evangelists; not without result.

Although Rousseau never held an official position in the revolutionary government, (he died in 1778, before the Revolutionary Era) he was venerated by the revolutionaries as their "patron saint".

Supra, Chapter 2.1.VIII (again, one of many):

Old women here swearing their ten children on the new Evangel of Jean Jacques;

Answer 3

I'm not sure if you agree with this, as this is a military example, but "generals are prepared to the previous wars" so I think this is worth mentioning.

In his works (finalized with the "Achtung Panzer!") Heinz Guderian laid grounds for effective use of tank weapon. When WW 1 ended, everyone expected that massive forts will be better. Guderian opted for mobile warfare for entire inter-war period.

Answer 4

A lot of people are right now following George Orwell's 1984 as a manual for what the perfect society should look like and implementing it in various countries all around the world.
Same with Marx's Das Kapital, that's been used like that for a century or more.